closed captioning of this program is made possible by the fireman's fund. what's at stake for california in the highly anticipated u.s. supreme court ruling on health care. expect it next week. the newly approved plan for oakland's biggest dwomtd in decades at the former army base brings hope for economic growth and jobs in the community. the obama administration shift in policy for undocumented immigrants continues to stir excitement and raise questions over imply men station and the political fallout. >> as president i won't settle for stopgap measures. plus, it's a family affair in california state of mines.

the intimate documentary about former governor pat brown by his own granddaughters recognizes his role in shaping california and examines how the family political legacy continues today. coming up next. good evening. i'm belva davis and welcome to be this week in northern california. joining me tonight on our news panel are tom vacar, ktvu news, consumer editor. and richard gonzalez, npr

correspondent. and david lazarus, the las vegas times. david, if there ever was a time when we could use a crystal ball and that would be you, tell us where are we in this and when will the court let us know what's they're deliberations have brought them to rule on? >> frs of all, there's no percentage in trying to second guess the supreme court. anything we say will remain in the realm of speculation. that said, polls that have come out and my own conversations with a number of health care experts suggest we have a sense of what could happen next week. on the one hand, what we're looking at probably the conservative wing of the supreme court striking down the so called individual mandate. at the beginning of this process, it was thought legal footing, now a lot of people are thinking, you know, bagsed on the aggressive questioning during the testimony, the individual mandate probably

living on borrowed time. the question is what about the rest of the health care reform law and the con ken sus that i'm hearing the justices might leave that standing but that puts substance abuse a whole new pickle because on the one hand the mandate goes away, meaning that people do not have to by law go and buy insurance. on the other hand, still on the books would be what's known as guaranteed issue. that means insurer has to sell you health insurance regardless of any pre-existing conditions. can't charge you anymore. when you add those two, it's a recipe for disaster. eight different states have tried to have no mandate but yes guaranteed issue and every sing of one of them end pd in catastrophe and people waited until they got sick before they bought insurance. this is exactly what most people would do. you would be nutty not to do that. that has deep rep recushions for the insurance company. what it means the only people who are covered are sick people.

and if they're sick people are the only people there, then their risk factor goes up. as risk goes up, premiums go up. as premiums go up, few ek people can afford insurance. what does that mean? one expert i spoke to said looking at 20% increase in premiums if indeed no mandate but yes on guaranteed issue. and perhaps as many as 20 million more people uninsured and so it's just -- it takes a bad situation and makes it worse. >> it's a bad situation. is it worse for california? are we going to be worse off because california got ets very involved in trying to do all it should do or could do to make sure that this law was implemented? >> it's a few moving parts to california. on the one hand, wer covering our bases by having law in place to protect us from the loss of more popular provisions of the reform law. let's say it went down t california still make sure that

young people can stay on their parent's plan until they're 26, for example. or that insurers cannot turn away young people. kids, who might have pre-existing conditions. that will remain the law of the land in california. the real question here, what about the exchange? california was the first state to set up one of the so-called exchanges where people who don't have employer base insurances would be able to shop for supposedly affordable insurance. well, if you have no mandate but still the guaranteed issue, that means the premiums are going to go up and it may not work as intended. what you could see as a result of that is the exchange kind of keeling over underitself its other weight. what happens to medi-cal, about 8 million people brought into the fold with expansion of medi-cal funding thanks to federal dollars. if the health care reform law goes away, so does that money and that in turn is going to affect spending on the people who need it most. the people at the lower end of

the economic spectrum. >> wouldn't that put an end to the county hospital system? it's overburdened with people who can't afford to pay anything. now all these new people in there, would this not be a disaster in terms of raw dollars take care of the people who can't die on the street? >> that's right. the the law of the land, emergency care zimpgss no to turn anyone away urn in circumstances. you will have more people going there. who is going to pay the freight for that? taxpayers on the one hand and people who are covered by insurance on the other. premium wills go up. taxes will go up to cover that. essentially the situation we have now with about 50 million people in this country ininsured and the dysfunction that surrounds that, it becomes worse in a situation where the supreme court starts picking and chooses what's going to stand and what sntd. i was speaking earlier in the week saying, what are you going

to do if the mandate goes away, decline on the record, off the record, what i'm hearing they're immediately going to unleash their law. go back to washington, first of all, try to get guaranteed issue. that's not going to happen because it's very pop you loor. they'll look for permission to charge sick people more money which is something that's outlawed under tp health care reform law. >> listen here, this story, you know, you understand and i guess a whole lot of other people will have to start to understand it next week when the court makes the decision which could be as early as monday or as late as thursday. i guess that's when they get to go home. so washington will be the center focus for most of us. richard gonzalez has the story that of course was repropelled by the headlines by action of president. what does it mean to allow some undocumented young people to stay in the country that

previously would have been deported. >> bell va, there's a procedural aspect to this story. political. i can talk about the procedural. if you're undocumented kid, you might be eligible to stay here and not be deported and earn a two-year temporary work permit. you have to prove that you arrived here before your 16th birthday, living here for five years, no criminal record, you have a ged or high school diploma or a member of the military. but, that means also presenting yourself to the feds when all of your life you've been trying to avoid those people. that means giving up personal information and also getting fingerprinted. the question is will people want to do that? >> so have you gotten or done any interviews with young people who have make this choices? how nervous are they. >> i've talked with young people and immigration advocates and lawyers. it's case by case basis. it may not work for everybody.

but you have to get some good advice. very concerned that there's going to be a lot of fraud sisters out there, somebody say, for $5,000, i'll make sure your application is good. you don't want to do that. you have to talk to advocates and attorneys you know and can trust. >> many of these people are not people that came from another country and snuck in. they brought in when they didn't know it. they've been raised like americans, have american ideals, aspirations and at whatever age it s they get deported and go back to a country they don't know, a country that is really foreign to them. >> that's exactly what people want to avoid. when you talk with these young people, they'll tell you, i'm invested here. i was raised here. i don't speak as good spanish as my mom and dad and i have no home back in mexico. so they've got that investment here. when you talk with them, they really want you to understand that they want to stay and

contribute. fit means going to school, joining the military, they're for it. >> david, in los angeles, that is where the largest number of hispanic, some of them undocumented live. so is this a big issue for the city of los anxious? >> it's huge in southern california. all variouses of the dream act. richard, i want to ask you about the politics the of this. obviously it's a political move. no question about it but he's a politician. the question i have is does this help light a fire under the gop which just a few months ago basically shot down the dream act and said that's not going to happen on our watch? >> what it does right now is that it puts mitt romney in a box. the obama and his people knew what they were doing. basically, they set up the situation that where romney couldn't come off for it, already on record saying he would veto the dream act, and to

come up for this, he would alienate his right-wing base. he hasn't said he can support it, but he hasn't said he would -- he hasn't said he actually opposes it. yesterday, in front of a conference of latino elected officials, he said if he gets a chance, he will supersede it with a long-term solution for immigration. what he didn't say what that solution is. >> well, we do know that -- we do know this is a political issue and it will carry on, but i'm not so sure what happens in real life as the -- does the president have to do something else or do we just wait to see how many people sign up? when is it considered a good thing? is it judged by the number of people who go and get that fingerprint? >> the feds have 60 days to come up with all this is going to work. everybody is holding their breath and waiting to see what do those regulations say.

what will be the procedures for signing up. when that happens, we'll find out whether people will sign up or wait until november to see who will be the next president. if it's going to be romney, maybe they'll think twice about signing up. >> one thing we know is the jobs is at the center of both of these stories, whether it's health care or whether it is your status, immigration status. we have a good news story about jobs. something good happened in oakland, oakland's old army base could base it possible for people to be able to pay for their health care. >> this is huge. especially because it's oakland. because oakland already is one of the world's great ports. nobody argues about that. the trouble is that oakland has all the other things that are going on. but a guy by the name of salt guy my, entrepreneur and money guy and oakland native has been the latest to propose a project to bring the army base, which has been closed for 13 years, back to life. what he proposes to do to turn

it into a major warehousing and distribution center and it's really part of the port anyhow. when it was oakland army base, it was oakland army port to sent materials down to the south pacific and vietnam and all of that stuff. other proposals for things like stadiums and all this stuff were thought about but this is the best use of this thing. and what it could ultimately do is generate as many as 8,000 construction jobs is and 4 permanent jobs. the controversy that almost put this thing into real trouble was what the community wanted. the community was making certain demands in order to give its approval through its elected legislatures and part of it was they wanted to make sure that at least 50% of the people hired were from oakland and from oakland's most impof rished zip cod codes. they wanted to make sure these weren't the worse jobs. they got that deal.

finally, they wanted something that was more controversial. they waned an oversight board that would run this thing for the next coup kl of decades, maybe next quarter century, there were some sticking is points. part of that on certain of jobs no requirement to check criminal background, which works really well in construction and things like that where that may not be an issue. when you're talking about bonded warehousing and things like that, you don't necessarily get to do that. so there was a compromise on that. but the bottom line is that they now have until the end of next year to get construction underway. if they do not, they lose a quarter of a billion dollars in state funding. this was a very important vote that was taken this week in oakland. what stands in the way, is that there are 23 different agencies, state, federal, and local agencies have to grant 40 permits. anybody who knows anything permitting in california is they need all the time they can get. even though this thing is on a fast track now, to get those permits, to get everything in

place, to get this whole thing working, this is going to be down to the wire. but it looks like oakland will pull this off. you have to give credit to everybody finally saying, let's get this done. let's not railroad it and make it wait until we're happy with everything. i think this guy takes a lot of credit, because he was one of the great negotiate yors in this whole thing. >> i'm a proud resident. what does this mean for me? >> it means that you'll see lot more jobs in oakland. that means that will improve the tax base. better property taxes coming out of that particular piece of property. there's going to be a lot more inventory taxes, things like that. that's all good stuff. are you going to see more traffic? yes. more trucks yes. tate of art things put into this port, not been done before. it will be the best infrastructure, stuff that will last for another 100 or 200 years. in that sense, we benefit because most people don't realize this, the port of

oakland is directly responsible, not just on the port of oakland, but the businesses around it for 70,000 jobs in northern california. 70,000. this could add another 8 or 10,000 jobs to that. this is enormous for oakland and very good peas of news. >> you have a comment about this, david? >> yeah. i guess i don't want to rain on the parade, it's a great all these jobs are coming and real feather in the cap that they got everything they wanted. i just wonder, though, if this weren't turned to developers here in a sense scare away other potential developers or investors who might want to bring money to oakland then think, i don't want to jump through all those hoops. this is too much. >> the most scary thing will be for those kinds of people that are going to set up businesses in this thing. people who might have the to move in their business an be confronted with this 50% hiring or no checking of criminal

records. that might scare them. that will be ironed out. the other thing that's good is that the port of oakland needs to stay in competition where with you, long beach, seattle, u portland. this is important port in the united states, it's not so important that other ports that are truly more important like l.a. and long beach can't have a distinct advantage. this will give them some advantage they haven't had before. lot of stuff get comes in here by choice of those shippers. those shippers have other choices. this will make it easier to make the choice for oakland. >> good news. that's also the labor community sent out a glowing press release saying how much they valued and how much they approved of what is happening. >> a lot of these jobs will be union jobs. the other thing is it helps the union movement at the time the union movement needs all the help. it sufrd lot of reversals with public lay jaufs and things like this.

this is where most of these jobs will be union jobs if not all of them. it will be a good thing for organized labor in a port complex. >> we have to end on a good news story. we're going to say good-bye to david. we thank you so much for bringing us the ins and outs of what could be decided by the courts but we will know about it monday or thursday of this week. >> thanks for having me, bell va. >> update on the budget deal between the governor and democratics leaders. it includes restructuring the state's welfare program, streamlining health insurance for low-income children and reducing child care coverage for k 12 funding remains in tact for now but could be subjected to mid-year cuts if brown's tax measure fails in november. final vote is scheduled for next week. governor jerry brown's father former governor pat brown had a profound and lasting impact on shaping california of

today. the documentary, california state of mind, pat brown's granddaughter offers an intimate look at this iconic politician and the making of a political dynasty. i spoke with the film's director sascha rice and her sister hilary armstrong about their family and the film. first a clip from this movie. >> we don't study history enough. so i don't believe that people know pat brown's story. one thing about his legacy is that he was willing to take risk and he was willing to take risk for the right reasons. >> pat brown when he talks about thinking big, that is the very thing that is lacking a lot of times in sacramento. you have to be able to communicate that vision. pat brown did that. he communicated that vision and he brought people in. >> this would be what he was all

about. >> he built the water system that made southern california possible. he built the state university system. he was the man who was interested in solutions and doing what was best for the state. he was a true californian. >> i think that government should try to do things for people, not to the point of doing everything for them, but i don't believe in seeing people suffer while government sits by and lets the individual take care of themselves. >> seeing the world through the lens of pat brown is very valuable. we might learn something that might give us some ideas of how do we deal with the kind of world that we now confront. >> well, youtube made a film about your family, the browns after all, you have your grandfather, mom, treasurer and your uncle now as governor of california, but knowing your grandfather, seems very important to knowing california. explain to us a bit about him? >> pat brown, he is accredited

with many accomplishments but for us we knew him as our grandfather. he loved people and he was really a lot of fun to be around. i really wanted to bring his memory back so that he could be an inspiration for people today. >> hard to imagine, though, getting the things done that he did may be one of them was the fact that he won with majority vote of almost 1 million votes. how did hi do that. >> he shook a lot of hands and babies. there was a party he would go to to. you had to get yourself out there. he was a very likable human being. >> he is often credited with the state water project which includes the california aqua duct and master plan for education. but what is not known as much is that he is -- was a champion for civil rights and was a fighter for fair housing and fair employment. >> talk a bit about -- we talked a tbt aqua duct and water, what his vision and how hauz t overlaid on where we are now,

where your uncle is trying to deal with those thiends of things? >> folks had tried to get it zoen for other 30 years. you couldn't -- it wasn't a partisan issue. it was an issue of north and south and rural and urban. you couldn't get people to agree. northerners thought the southerners were trying to steal their water. most people felt that we didn't need to worry about it. my grandfather was quite aware of the growth that was happening and he knew he needed to build that. >> and developing something called an educational master plan happened within his life time. talk about the importance of having a master plan for education m. >> i think a lot people did not know that our grandfather could not go through college. he put himself through law school. he paid rent to his own father. i was surprised by that. education really was important to him. he wanted it tok accessible and affordable to everybody. we know that's not the case today. it's really tragedy because that's part of what makes

california great. you can get a great job and education. lot of wonderful things have happened because they've had great education in california. >> how and what tools did he have that today's politicians seem to lack? >> i think that a lot of of the issue right now is structural and i think there's a two thirds vote to pass the budget that raise taxes and that wasn't exactly the case back then. so he used to call that the tyranny of the minorities. you needed supermajority to get anything done. what party you're in, whoever is in power gets stuck. term limits, he used to say that their natural term limbs when you come up for re-election. >> eh had a lot of turf he covered. he signed this bill that the fair employment practices piece of legislation which had to do with discrimination in hiring. >> i think one of the things that made him unique, he is incredibly candid and he really felt strongly he needed to do

what was right. when he grew up, his mother taught him to treat people equally and fairness was always a quality that he valued. and i think that there's a lot of people today that have that quality but they're a bit afraid to speak out. i will say, though, that he was unpopular sometimes when he stood up for fair housing and fair employment. theically mat was thafsz not a popular thing. he got advised to not do it. he did it any way. there was a backlash and he fought for it. >> why did it become to important nor his life that he would look out for minority groups to the expense of his own career? >> it was doing the right thing. i think my mother talks about that in the film. that what he taught her and uncle jerry and us. that's the most important thing that you have. >> your mother, kathleen, with uz the treasure for the state, she also ran for governor herself. so what did you learn from your

mom that you maybe you got the seeds of it from your grandfather. what did you learn from your mom. >> we saw firsthand what a tough business it is the. a positive difference in the next skbren ration. you don't need to run for office. there's different ways to do it. running for office is tough. we definitely know that firsthand. >> tell us about the relationship between your grandfather and your uncle, governor jerry grown. >> every father and son has i think there's a normal tension between them. a lot of people talk about their differences. i think they're both visionaries and both very similar. i don't -- my grandfather more pleased to have a son who cared so passionately and politics. he used to call him everyday to give jerry advice. i think as a young man, jerry found that very frustrating. now that he's a little bit older, he talks about his father quite a lot and reveres him. >> thank you both very much for

sharing us. >> our pleasure. we hoep everybody tunes in to see our film. >> thank you for having us. >> california state of mind, the legacy of pat brown remooers june 25th at 9. that's all for tonight. i want to thank both of you for joining us here. visit kqed this week for our show ar chives and describe to our newsletter and pod cast and to share your thoughts about the program. i'm belva davis. thank you for watching. good night.